Swimming Lessons

It has been 35 years since I last taught swimming lessons.  I still have many fond memories from those days, especially from teaching the younger kids.  I can still remember one young lad's response to learning that we were about to go to the deep-end of the pool - "I can't go there; I'm only 6 years-old; I'm just a kid."  To pass the introductory Splashers class it was required that students be able to float on their stomach for a few seconds with their face in water.  I failed a lot of kids.

It wasn't my intention to make a teaching comeback while living in Thailand.  However, with Alex spending about one hour per day in our pool it kind of evolved by accident. My main goal has been for Alex to simply enjoy being in the water.  Each day when I ask him if he wants to go swimming he responds with a "Hhm, no thanks.  But once I'm in the water he's running to get his swim suit.  Usually he's the last one who wants to get out.

We play in the water and Alex spends most of the time with his water wings on (he can't touch the bottom except at the stairs).  He is now so comfortable in the water that he could easily swim if he didn't mind getting his face wet.  Today he surprised all of us by making it across our 5 metre pool unassisted.  I wouldn't exactly call it swimming, but he was self propelled while keeping his eyes and mouth out of the water.  It was an impressive showing.  However, it's a good thing that he's not in my Splashers class because I would still have to fail him.